The application relates generally to telephone feature programming, and more particularly to a voice prompted telephone user interface for programming a telephone central switch or a PBX.
Electronic telephone exchanges and switches, known as PBXs or key systems, are used to connect telephone extensions to a central telephone office line, either a local system owned by the individual or company, or a central office owned by the phone or telecommunications company. The individual phone extensions are known as the PBX's instruments or stations. Key system telephone instruments, such as might be found in an office or small business, may have buttons or keys that allow or enable direct selection of central office lines, thus picking up calls on hold status, connecting to other stations, etc. The keys may have colored lights or tones associated with the key that indicate the status of the communications line associated with the key.
The keys on the phone may be programmed to have the specific desired function, such as may be performed by a technician physically located at the central PBX or key system, making the desired connections. The PBX may have a memory of which functions are assigned to which key on all of the individual instruments or telephones that are controlled by the PBX or central switch. The memory may be programmed by a specific series of key strokes on a terminal device connected to a control port of the PBX or central switch. The switch may signal the telephone user with tones, flashing lights of different colors and flash patterns, etc. Such tones may be specific to an individual manufacturer, or may be generally known, such as the common busy signal.
A business or a multiple line private telecommunications system may include at least two parts. One part may be the simple telephone receiver consisting of an electronic communication line and speakers. The second part may be a feature programmer consisting of a memory and logic that may be used to program various potential features onto selected buttons and switches on the phone. Telecommunications systems may have a central PBX portion that controls the management of the plurality of physical incoming and outgoing lines that may be connected to the desired one of the telephone receivers in the overall system, or to the desired one of the multiple lines that may connect to a single one of the receivers in the overall system. The PBX acts as the central programmer that controls the special features of various buttons, switches, colored lights and indicators on the telephone receiver.
In the case of a multiple line telephone (i.e., a telephone that responds to more than one telephone number), the receiver may have indicators that show the status of what may be known as either the line appearance or the call appearance. Line appearance mode allows a user to see the status of all the outside lines. The line appearance mode provides a status report that may indicate which specific one of the multiple input lines to that specific telephone receiver may be currently active (i.e., which line you are talking on, or sending data along), which lines have a caller waiting (i.e., on hold), which lines are ringing (i.e., an incoming call that has not been answered yet), and which lines are currently not in active use. Each of the possible input lines to the specific phone may be individually activated by pressing a button programmed to enable that particular physical line. The line appearance is what might be seen on the phone of a secretary/receptionist who answers the phone of several different offices. That is, some of the lines will have a call connected to one of the multiple phone users, while another outside line may have a call to the same one of the multiple users but be on hold status, another one of the lines may have a call to a user that is currently absent and thus be leaving a voice mail message, etc.
The call appearance mode may be associated with the status of the central phone switch (or PBX) of the company phone system from the incoming trunk line to each individual phone. In call appearance mode a phone may show the status of current calls. The PBX has a database of incoming phone lines and the number and features of all of the lines going to each of the phones in the company phone system. In the call appearance mode the lights or indicators on the phone display are a logical subset of the current features of the outgoing lines of the PBX system. The subset is the set of calls and lines that the user of the phone has an interest in knowing the status.
The features of a particular phone line may include whether or not the line can be programmed to forward calls automatically to another phone by hitting a specific button and then entering the four digit extension of the phone to which all future calls will be sent until cancelled by hitting either the same specific button again, or another specified button. The features may be programmed by either sending a phone call to a specified central PBX number, or by someone physically at the PBX. Thus the specific features set up for a particular phone line are often programmed by either a technician physically at the PBX unit, or with a limited set of manipulations possible by the pressing of buttons from the user at the other end of the phone line. Buttons may be assigned special functions different from their normal operation. Many PBXs need to be connected to a separate attendant system to program the various phone lines with selected ones of the various available features. This situation makes programming a phone a time consuming and error intensive situation since two people who need to communicate back and forth may need to be involved in the programming.
A particular phone's features may not be programmed directly, but rather may be programmed through the above noted communication with the PBX/central switch. The phone may have specific features programmed by the PBX, and the features thus selected may be further customized at the phone. Phone features may be programmed by an operator at the central PBX station, and may be further viewed with the phone in the call appearance mode.
Thus there exists in the art a problem with telecommunications users either having to work their way through an often complex manual to properly program their phones, or to have to communicate with a technician physically at the central phone control site, or to limit the available programmability to those items that can be implemented at the end of a phone line by use of the ten numbered phone buttons.